Method and apparatus for making floor and wall coverings



June 19,- 1951 1 J L BERGER 2,557,068

a1-:mon AND APiAR'ATus Fon mmc FLooR AND WALL covERINGs Filed June 10. 1947 Patented June 19, "195i METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING FLOOR AND WALL COVERINGS John L. Berger, Columbia, Pa., assignor to Armstrong Cork Company, Lancaster, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania.

Application June 10, 1947, Serial No. 753,604

9 Claims. (Cl. 154-23) This invention relates to a method of making floor and wall coverings and, more particularly, to a marbleized floor and wall covering produced from loose granular color compositions.

In the manufacture of marbleized floor and wall coverings of the linoleum type, the customary procedure has been to produce the marbleized effect by feeding a mixture of differently colored linoleum composition granules to a two-roll calender of which the top or facing roll is operating at a speed slightly in excess of the speed of the bottom roll. This produces a sheet which is streaked by the different colors of linoleum composition. These sheets are then rotated through a horizontal angle of 90 and passed through the sheeting calender a second time to spread the graining to produce a striated effect similar to that found in certain types of natural marble.

For years, the linoleum industry has been at-` tempting toproduce a marble graining which more closely simulates the veined appearance of natural marble, and it was with this problem in mind that the present invention was developed.

An object of this invention is to provide a method of producing marbleized floor and wall coverings in which the design appearing on the face of the material is carried through to the back` Other objects of my invention will be apparent from the following description.

This invention is directed to a method of makng molded marble floor and Wall coverings in vhich the loose granulated color composition is lisposed on the backing or carrier While the same s in a vertical position, and the individual colors making up the marble design are disposed in ayers. After these individual layers are laid up, he carrier with the loose granulated colors disposed thereon, passes around a roll which holds the color composition incontact with the backing While it is being rotated from a vertical plane to a hcrizontal plane. After the backing with the loose composition thereon assumes a horizontal direction of travel, it passes into a suitable consolidating machine, such as a flat bed press or a rotary calender.

In order that my invention may be more fully understood, it will be described in connection with the attached drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of an apparatus suitable for carrying out my invention;

Figure 2 1`s a sectional viewl taken on the line lI--II of Figure 1 showing the end of the drum; and

Figure 3 is an elevational view of a piece of marbleized floor covering material made in accordance with my proposed method.

lli

Referring to Figure l, there is shown an apparatus suitable f or carrying out the method of my invention in which the loose granulated color composition 2 is fed from suitable bins or hoppers, not shown, into the opening between two vertical plates 3 and 4. Plate 4 may be made of metal; however, plate 3 is preferably made of glass or other transparent material to enable the operator to see the formation of the marble graining. A vibrator 5 is attached to the plate d to vibrate the same. This plate in turn vibrates the granules to insure that there are no vacant spaces in the column of granulated composition. Burlap or other suitable backing or carrying material, such-as asphalt saturated felt, is shown at S, being fed into the vertical chute over the plate il. This backing material follows along the vertical plate d and acts as a carrier for the loose color composition after it has assumed a horizontal direction of travel.

A drum or roll l is provided which serves to hold the loose granulated color composition firmly to the backing as the sheet is being transferred from a vertical plane to a horizontal plane. A series of pins are located along the edges of the roll. The purpose of these pins is to engage the edges of the backing and pull it along the backing plate These pins 8 are normally retracted by springs t. A stationary pin-operating shoe il) is located in the zone Where the direction of travel of the material changes from the vertical plane to the horizontal plane. The shoe it isso positioned as to engage the inner ends of the pins and force them outwardly so that their points will engage the edge of the material and move it along at the same speed as the drum, thereby preventing slippage. After the material has been changed to a horizontal plane, it is engaged 'by the pin bands l2 which carry it along a horizontal platform to a suitable consolidating device, such as the iiat bed press i 3.

The mechanism for supplying the loose granulated color composition to the vertical chute is not important for carrying out my -method. This can be accomplished by a series of hoppers or conveyors which dump differently colored compositions into the chute at various times to give a haphazard arrangement of the layers o loose granulated composition. v

In a specific embodiment of my invention, severalx different contrasting colors of regular molded inlaid linoleum composition were handfed to the chute in a haphazard manner to produce definite veins of differently colored composition running across the entire Width of the machine. After consolidation onto the backing,

a sheet of material, similar to that shown in Figure 3. was obtained in which the veins appearing in the surface were carried through to the back in such manner that the marble design appearing on the surface was prevalent throughout the thickness of the material.

While the embodiment disclosed above utilize regular linoleum compositions, it will be understood that this method can be carried out in the manufacture of hard surface oor and wall coverings made from various plastic materials, such as Vinylite, comprising a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, or other suitable color compositions.

It will be apparent from this disclosure that I have developed a method of making marbleized oor and Wall covering from loose granulated composition in which the marble graining appearing on the face of the material remains substantially the same throughout the thickness of the material.

While I have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that the same is not so limited but may be otherwise embodied Within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a method of forming decorated surface covering material, the steps comprising depositing separate masses of loose granulated base and variegated color compositions irregularly upon one another and on edge upon a carrier disposed in a substantially vertical plane to cause said base and variegated color compositions to intermingle at their zones of juncture to form an irregularly variegated layer in which the base and variegated color compositions extend throughout the thickness of the layer in the same general relationship, and consolidating said layer of loose granular color compositions into a substantially homogeneous Wear layer without substantially altering the general relationship of the base and variegating color compositions.

2. In a method of forming decorated surface covering material, the steps comprising depositing separate masses of loose, granulated base and variegated color compositions irregularly upon one another and on edge upon a carrier disposed in an inclined plane, the angle of inclination being suicient to cause said base and variegated color compositions to intermingle at their zones of juncture to form an irregularly variegated layer in which the base and variegating color compositions extend throughout the thickness of the layer in the same general relationship and consolidating said layer of loose color composition into a substantially homogeneous wear layer without substantially altering the general relationship of the base and variegating color compositions.

3. In a method of forming decorated surface covering material, the steps comprising depositing separate masses of loose granulated base and variegated color compositions irregularly upon one another and on edge upon a carrier disposed in a substantially vertical plane to cause said base and variegating color composition to intermingle at their zones of juncture to form an irregularly variegated layer in which the base and variegated color compositions extend throughout the thickness of the layer in the same general relationship, vibrating said carrier to insure intermingling of the various color compositions, and consolidating said layer of loose granulated color composition into a substantially homogeneous wear layer without substantially altering the general relationship of the base and variegated color com- Position.

4. In a method of forming linoleum door and wall covering, the steps comprising depositing separate masses of loose granulated base and variegated linoleum color compositions irregularly upon one another and on edge upon a carrier disposed in a substantially vertical plane to cause said base and variegated color compositions to intermingle at their zones of juncture to form an irregularly variegated layer in which base and variegated color compositions extend throughout the thickness of the layer in the same general relationship, and consolidating said layer of loose granular color compositions into a substantially homogeneous Wear layer without substantially altering the general relationship of the base and variegating color compositions.

5. In a method of forming decorated surface covering material, the steps comprising depositing separate masses of loose granulated base and variegated color compositions irregularly upon one another and on edge upon a carrier disposed in a substantially vertical plane to cause said base and variegated color compositions to intermingle at their zones of juncture to form an irregularly variegated layerin which the base and variegated color compositions extend throughout the thickness of the layer in the same relationship, changing the direction of travel of the carrier from a vertical plane to a horizontal plane by passing the carrier with the loose color composition disposed thereon over an arcuatesurface, said arcuate surface serving to hold the loose color composition in place on the carrier, and thereafter consolidating said layer of loose granular color composition into a substantially homogeneous wear layer without substantially altering the general relationship of the base and variegating color compositions.

6. In a method of forming decorated surface covering material, the steps comprising depositing separate masses of loose granulated 'oase and color compositions irregularly upon one another and on edge upon a carrier disposed in a substantially vertical plane to cause said base and variegated color compositions to intermingle at their zones of juncture to form an irregularly variegated layer in which the base and variegated color compositions extend throughout the thickness of the layer in the same general relationship, and passing said carrier with the loose composition disposed thereon into a at bed press to consolidate the said layer of loose granular color composition into a substantially homogeneous wear layer without substantially altering the general relationship of the base and variegating color compositions.

'7. In a method of forming decorated surface covering material, the steps comprising depositing separate masses of loose granulated base and variegated color compositions irregularly upon one another and on edge upon a carrier disposed in a substantially vertical plane to cause said base and variegated color compositions to intermingle at their zones of juncture to form an irregularly variegated layer in which the base and variegated color compositions extend throughout the thickness of the layer in the same general relationship, and thereafter subjecting the mass of loose granular color compositions to heat and pressure to consolidate it into a homogeneous Wear layer without substantially altering the gen- 5 eral' relationship of the base and varlegating color composition.

8. In an apparatus for forming decorated surface covering material, the combination of a. substantially vertical chute into which color compositions are disposed upon one another in engagement with a carrier disped in a substantially vertical plane, a rotating drum positioned at the lower extremity of said chute and engaging one surface of the column of loose granulated color composition, means on said drum to engage the carrier to rotate the carrier and color composition with the drum, and means for consolidating the loose color composition into a substantially homogeneous wear layer.

9. In an apparatus for forming decorated surface covering material, the combination of a pair ot substantially vertically disposed wall members forming a narrow chute therebetween for the reception of granulated inlaid linoleum compositions, one of said walls constituting a support for a carrier disposed in a substantially vertical plane,

REFERENCES crrnn The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNI'IED STATE PATENTS Number Name Date 949,863 Traeber et al. Feb. 22, 1910 1,644,175 Church Oct. 4, 1927 1,842,232 Baker Jan. 19, 1932 2,069,589 Mejling et al. Feb. 2, 1937 2,225,015 Lebelle Dec. 17, 1940 2,324,574 Gans July 20, 1943 2,470,068 Contenson May 10, 1949 

